The major objective of this project is to explain the changes experienced by the families of an immigrant group in the process of adjustment to the environment of industrial America. Given suggestions in recent literature of the fundamental differences in the very meaning of family that have occurred in different historical times and circumstances, an attempt will be made to provide an historical definition of Finnish families as they move from Finland to America. The Finns are a small enough immigrant group to allow the identification of sets of families composing a significant portion of the entire study group and to trace them through time. Particular emphasis will be placed on analysis of the changes in the structure and quality of family life as immigrants moved from the traditional, agricultural village societies of Finland to industrial society in modern America. Understanding of the nature of these changes can be further refined by a parallel study of the small number of contemporary Finnish immigrants to America: immigrants moving from one modern, urban society to another. Hereby, it is hoped that the factors behind changes in the family can to some extent be isolated and thus better explained. Computerized information on Finnish immigrants available at the Univeristy of Turku makes it possible to classify groups of families migrating from the same parish in Finland to the same community in America. By studying both environments and the adaptations of the family to each, some general conclusions can be drawn about changes in family life in different times and circumstances.